


The Trials of Being a Marked Man in a Cinderella Story

by afullrevolution



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Castiel!Professor, Cinderella - Freeform, Class Differences, Class Issues, Dean as Cinderella, Family, Marks, Slow Build, Social Activism, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-22
Updated: 2016-06-22
Packaged: 2018-07-16 15:23:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 842
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7273522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afullrevolution/pseuds/afullrevolution
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The story was glamorous. The main participants, at the appropriate moments, wore robes in vivid colors that swirled around their legs while their feet were adorned with matching embroidered slippers. Nonetheless, the story was also gritty. There was tragedy combined with romance and copious misunderstandings all around. Despite being marked, the two individuals in question were not, after all, raised to view the world in perfect accord.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Trials of Being a Marked Man in a Cinderella Story

**Author's Note:**

> Readers should be aware that the style of this particularly story is loosely (so loosely) supposed to mirror an academic article. They should also know that the story is set in some indeterminate future in some random alternate universe. Castiel is a professor who studies ancient midwifery while Dean. Well Dean has a job that I keep shifting just slightly. I'll have decided by next chapter.  
> That said, Castiel is part of a wealthy, snobbish family with little concern for working class peons. Dean belongs to a family of social radicals.

Readers will already know about Castiel and Dean’s Cinderella story. They will be aware of how the course of that story inadvertently shaped present society. Because of its importance, multiple history books have covered the tale as have several feature films and historical romances. But, as with many stories of this type, those tellings either glamorize the participants involved or gloss over them entirely. Admittedly, those descriptions are not altogether incorrect. The story was glamorous. The main participants, at the appropriate moments, wore robes in vivid colors that swirled around their legs while their feet were adorned with matching embroidered slippers. Nonetheless, the story was also gritty. There was tragedy combined with romance and copious misunderstandings all around. Despite being marked, the two individuals in question were not, after all, raised to view the world in perfect accord.  

Of course some social scientists argue that the very lack of perfect accord and the challenge of communication between the individuals involved is what makes these kinds of partnerships perfect. To function, such relationships require commitment. They either work or fail spectacularly. What marked partnerships offer is the knowledge that there is a chance for an enduring relationship. It could work. The investment could in fact be worth the effort. And, as readers know, so many people want that chance. 

Castiel and Dean were born with identical marks spanning a hand’s breadth across their upper arms. While perfectly compatible, if they had been born a hundred years prior, they likely would never have met. Despite their relative physical proximity, they moved in different social circles. Their acquaintances were different enough that it is unlikely that anyone would have mentioned to someone who would told someone else that someone was known who maybe carried an identical mark. 

The point is moot because the two were born and raised just at that moment in history when enough time had passed after the first study was published for it to have been replicated several times. Prior to that first study, there had been mystery around the matched marks. Many people laughed at the likelihood that two (or more) individuals should be born with perfectly matched birth marks. Folk tales abounded about individuals finding each other across social boundaries and in the middle of war and going on to live improbably happily ever after. Most people laughed at the idea. 

By the time Castiel and Dean arrived on the scene, a long series of rigorous scientific studies had upturned the world. These studies had proven that most, if not all, people were born with a match. As readers know, those studies demonstrated, except for one with now-clearly fabricated results, that the marks did in fact indicate a perfect balance between individuals. Furthermore, the studies proved that that balance did not only exist in dual, heterosexual relationships. Those studies, reproduced many times, threw most social groups across the world into uproar. Some states debated changing their laws to permit greater social freedom and protect against mark-based violence. Some denied the reality of those studies at all. 

The studies were, of course, possible in part because technology was advanced enough to actually make finding your matched mark a legitimate possibility. And, very quickly, unlike the system in place today, several small and one large agency sprang up offering matching services. In fairness, the large one had been operating for longer than most people believed, trading on stories of true love and cosmic destiny. They capitalized on the truth of their assertions when photographic evidence began to prove their claims. 

To take advantage of any of these company’s services, one could pay a small fee to submit evidence, usually photographs, of a marks. If a match was found, then both (or multiple) individual were notified. One was then supposed to visit a local office for verification of the mark and receipt of the match’s contact information. Anyone could opt to try and find out. Without global participation or even widespread local participation, match rates continued to be low, but so much higher than only a decade prior.  

Of the two under discussion here, Castiel would be the first to upload his images. On a routine visit to his doctor, his physician asked if he was interested in uploading the stipulated five images to the local match center. Castiel agreed without putting much thought into the issue. Match rates, as stated, were still too low to make anticipation of any clear value. But, as Castiel often told himself, nothing ventured was nothing gained. And, in this case, nothing could be lost with his acquiescence. Dean would submit his images five years later because his little brother nagged him into it. 

If the two hadn’t taken those steps, who knows what the world would look like today. Castiel and Dean became directly involved in the legal developments surrounding the marks. Their actions would have a significant impact in future developments. But, what we are concerned with here is the story of how they adjusted to one another, not about the subsequent legal developments.  

**Author's Note:**

> I can't edit my own work, as some of my readers will know. If you desperately want to fix my grammar or catch inconsistencies. Well. I'd appreciate it.


End file.
